Strange reaction to music

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I've always loved music and through the years have been obsessed with great musicians like the Beatles, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Radiohead + many, many others. Six years ago, when I reached 30 I purchased the complete organ works of Bach & piano sonatas of Beethoven. Some of these works caused an intense and somewhat bizarre sensation in me which I will explain below.

I knelt before the speakers, my eyes rolled back in my head and flickered, I began retching profusely & pulses of euphoria raced up my spine & flowed into my now tingling brain, my muscles went into spasm & my body curled up into a ball. It was as if my mind could not keep up with the complexity of this magnificent sound that was being force feed into me. I played it over and over again laughing hysterically 'How could a human being write this?' I kept saying to myself.

This only lasted a few days. I still get tingles & often cry when I hear emotive music but nothing like that. The only reference I have ever heard of regarding this phenomenon is from the film 'A clockwork orange' where the protagonist 'suffers' a similar experience listening to Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Does anyone know what this sensation is called? or what it means? I also experience visions when I listen to some classical music... generally patterns in nature like ocean waves, rain or storms, spiders weaving webs, animals in motion etc & sometimes dentritic or spiraling patterns forming in an outward projectory.

Sensory overload. That's all. Sorry to take the mystery out of it.



People on the spectrum generally have sensory hypersensitivity, which can more easily lead to sensory overload. Repeated exposure decreases the intensity.



I think this is likely a form of synesthesia, which is also seems common for people on the spectrum. I have this. Basically your sensory or cognitive neuro pathways trigger an secondary set of sensory or cognitive neuro pathways. For example, some people with synesthesia see different colors, shapes or patterns (or a combination of any of those) when they hear different sounds. Some see numbers as each having their own color or sound or pattern. Some see colors when they have certain tactile sensation. Some people experience a different tactile sensation with each color. And so on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, and David Bowie were great musicians?

Listening to Brand New does that to me. Seriously, I saw them live and couldn't breathe.

Of course The Beatles and Bowie were great! Although I think The Who, The Kinks and The Rolling Stones were much better...just quietly.

I get such intense emotional reactions from music. I don't overload but have a synesthetic experience. Especially with The Vines.

I think the shock of the switch to some *real* music might have been what had "caused an intense and somewhat bizarre sensation".

The Beatles are THE best.

I myself am glad we have a choice of music to listen to and not just the few "real" or "great" artist one individual likes.

As for the feeling you got from listening to this CD, I think you should listen to this Radiolab episode. It's got a few good examples of what can happen to the brain when exposed to new or unexpected patterns of sound.

http://www.radiolab.org/2007/sep/24/

Try some rachmaninoff, Chopin or rimsky korsakov. I love the great piano works. Debussey has always been a bit foo-foo for me and Beethoven a bit heavy but Rachmaninoff hits the spot. For a more modern sound try Joe Satriani.

I am a huge fan of Tool and Metallica and I love the Who and of course Pink Floyd, but when I need something with real meat to wrap my mind around, something that will occupy ALL my attention and leave me breathless, I listen to the classic piano.

I love the symmetry of the classic composers. I love the reliance on melody and harmony with less dependence on the rythm section. For a modern day rock musician these seem to be deal breakers. The NT audience seems to revel in rythm that I cannot follow. While everyone else is dancing to the rythm, I am enthralled by the interaction of the melody and harmony. I get the rythm in Tool's Lateralus. My NT wife finds it totally haphazard.

Music and colors have always gone hand in hand for me. Only when I am in total solitude and relaxed in an environment of complete freedom can I experience the full color of music. In those moments I may be swept away by passionate communication that even I can experience.

Welcome to a wider world. This is a world where sound has color. Where math is emotionally fulfilling and where we can leave the NT world far, far behind.

That was my point, and I did not mean to offend anyone's favorite(s).

Please forgive.

Some of the simplest music I have ever heard has evidenced some great artistry, and there are many reasons music, like ice cream, has many flavors.

I saw "The Beatles" the first time they appeared on American TV in about '64, as I recall, but the screaming audience made it almost impossible to even hear their music.

It could actually be either a migraine or a seizure, both of which can be induced by certain patterns of sound. (And migraines don't have to involve headaches specifically, they can cause other kinds of pain or no pain at all.) Just overload is unlikely to do all that to you, not usually anyway and not so fast.

Personally, when I hear a certain kind of beat, I can't walk. Well I can't walk much now anyway, but I mean even when I was a kid and had much fewer motor problems. I found that I would either be unable to walk, or walk around randomly in a half-daze. It was especially prominent in certain kinds of techno, rap, and also those drums people always use who use their hands to drum on sidewalks and stuff. I'm assuming it either causes some kind of seizure (I'm epileptic anyway), or else it interacts with my motor issues in a particular way. (It's supposedly known that certain kinds of music can assist people with my particular motor condition, and some seem to help me, so maybe some make it worse, even back when it was much less visible than it is now.)

Music is very important to me. It's my perfect drug, I can't live without it. I put my headphones on and I feel it very strong.
It speaks instead me. It feels instead me. I feel like I had a decoder inside my head and like I could open a load of emotions locked in the song during recording it. You know, music receptors, like those for drugs. I don't have much emotions, so music is my supplement. With very high bioavailability.

Music stimulates me a lot, so I stim while listening to it. So I don't like to be with anyone, stimming with people is inappropiate and I need it. I know that my reaction to music is stronger than typical. NTs need only something nice in the background, they have their own feelings, so they don't care. I go to the concerts for the music, mostly alone, they want to meet their friends and have a good time with them.

i've had something that relates to that. when it happened, i posted the video in question in the music section, to see if anyone experienced the same thing, but i was alone
it started with a tingling in the fingers, some sorts of shivers too, no retching but a deep feeling in my spine and stomach, and i also saw some pyramids of rainbows , becoming transparent, stretching at the edges, something like that. eyes closed i mean, not like a hallucination.
the feeling was the same, being "force-fed"the music and letting it happen. it might be a sensory overload, but it was damn pleasant, i tried to recapture the feeling, but even though my fingers did become tingly and i could still see some coloured things, it decreased each time i repeated the experiment.
the music was written by a group called "stimming", how strange is that.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZWV2M0oWzI[/youtube]

i found the experience very intense and interresting....
edit: @skinnyboy: it was indeed new and unexpected as it is the opposite of the music i normally listen to. i'm into pop and guitars and rock....nothing in common with this. i will check the link.

Thanks for the responses and i'm happy to take the mystery out of my experience. After reading about synesthesia it seems to fit the picture.

Yeah, Rachmaninoff Piano Concertos & Chopin had a similar effect but not as intense. Have never heard Rimsky Korsakov. After reading about synesthesia on Wikipedia i'll have to. I like this quote "Individuals rarely agree on what color a given sound is (composers Liszt and Rimsky-Korsakov famously disagreed on the colors of music keys)". Love Liszt too, his Piano Concertos make me visualise spider webs.

Metallica, Tool, The Who, The Rolling Stones I have listened to copiously also, but my list of favs is so long I tried to be brief. The post was more asking about the reaction to music than to discuss favs, not that I mind doing so

You are not alone now and I love your description, esp. the pyramids of rainbows. I was going to post it in the music section but decided on general discussion. I can see how the link you posted could provoke such a reaction. Very hypnotic.

Strange reaction to music - Music, such as hearing the National Anthem on July 4th, can cause emotional reactions in some listeners. The most extreme example (neurologically) perhaps can be sound epilepsy where a sound like a ringing telephone or Mary Hart's voice can trigger a seizure in a few persons (not everyone). Between those areas is a lot of space and a very wide spectrum of normal emotional responses to music. That's my understanding. Music can be a big part of some persons' lives and appears to tap their emotions/aspects of their emotions. Words: music, emotions, synesthesia, etc.

I listen to a very wide (and constantly expanding) variety of music, and there are times when music gives me feelings and visions that are too complex and intense to even describe. I find Philip Glass to be great for this. I also like some of the bands/artists previously mentioned, and there are some other ones I don't like so much, but I don't feel the need to be an as*hole and try to argue about it, like some people apparently do.

I have synesthesia. I've never heard of synesthesia causing vomiting.